


The Rose Wilts

by citrusella



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Character Misses Other Character, Episode: s05e25 Legs From Here To Homeworld, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-08
Updated: 2019-03-08
Packaged: 2019-11-05 20:22:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17925710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/citrusella/pseuds/citrusella
Summary: Once upon a time, he knew Rose. But he knew he didn't know everything.Sometimes it feels like he's learned more about her after she died than he ever knew while she was alive.





	The Rose Wilts

**Author's Note:**

  * For [realfakedoors](https://archiveofourown.org/users/realfakedoors/gifts).



> For the crackship exchange!

Greg wasn't the only human that once knew Rose Quartz and now often missed her. Well, okay, not counting Vidalia, either, because one couldn't say she exactly thought about Rose enough to miss her.

Doug Maheswaran met Rose for the first time almost twenty years ago, on a security stint at the Funland Arcade, trying to catch the elusive Coinbox Bandit.

Rose was instrumental in his keeping his job; she'd woken him up right when the bandit was pulling off his plan.

He didn't get to thank her until two years later. He couldn't believe she still remembered him.

Their meetings became more and more frequent over the years, usually aligning with his trips to Beach City for business.

They always seemed to talk after night fell, because that was when security happened most often.

Of course, that meant he didn't know she was dating someone, because he was usually asleep during Doug's work hours, until—

didn't know it became serious, because it never came up, until—

didn't know she'd chosen to have _a baby_ of all things, because she'd heard that was the sort of thing humans keep secret until—

—she was showing.

She kept him updated, of course, but she seemed to keep so many things inside.

He didn't know the baby would essentially kill her until the last time he saw her.

For all their closeness, there was a lot she never told him.

He didn't know the name she'd planned to give her son/daughter.

He didn't know his own daughter would become friends with that very son 12 years later.

He didn't know that'd set his own family on such a strange trajectory—sword training, missions, trips he'd never dreamed his little Connie would take.

He'd never known she used to be some intergalactic dictator called Pink Diamond.

And he certainly hadn't expected himself or especially Priyanka to be so okay with their daughter traipsing through space with Rose's son on a "diplomatic mission".

It was the sort of silly thing Rose and Doug used to imagine doing but never actually seemed to think was possible. (Or, well, _Doug_ used to imagine doing it, but it was _Rose_ that always deemed it impossible. He'd just never pushed back because who was he to argue with a six-thousand-year-old alien?)

He supposed perhaps his daughter just had the gumption he lacked.

He supposed that was due to Steven.

And he supposed _that_ was due to Rose.

He looked up to space in the direction the leg ship had flown off, then down at the picture in his hands, an old photo of him and Rose taken in the arcade's photo booth.

He smirked. She may have once been instrumental in his keeping that job, but she was also instrumental in his losing it.

He placed the photo back in his billfold.


End file.
